Downlighting can add a pleasant ambience to large rooms, such as lounges or dining rooms, providing a softer light and removing the need for the traditional light-shade.  Once you’ve decided to opt for downlights, you need to think about the positioning.

The first thing to do is to make sure that you won’t overload your electrical lighting circuit.  If your house is on mains electricity, it can probably handle up to about eight downlights (about 400 watts) on any given circuit in a room.  You should check local regulations and if you are even slightly unsure, speak to an electrician.

Check the position of all the joists above the ceiling in the room you are fitting the downlights in.  It’s easier to set up the cables for the lighting if you keep pairs of downlights between pairs of joists. 

Then, if you are adding downlighting to a bathroom, check local electrical regulations.  You may not be able to fit the downlights where you would like to.

You can now decide where to position your downlights.  To get good results, you should space them the same across the room in both directions, leaving about six feet (or two metres) between each downlight.

Finally, although positioning downlights against walls might create interesting light in the room, it does have disadvantages.  If they are closer than about three feet (or a metre) to the wall, they will probably highlight any blemishes on the wall.